Giving a Rose as a Gift

Many of us like to give a rose as a gift, especially for special occasions like a special birthday or a wedding anniversary.  Unfortunately, because we lack access to good advice, we often end up giving roses that are not too special and end up be dead or discarded after a few years.

The following is a list of five roses that will delight the recipient for many many years.  They are five roses that were awarded a BEST BUY accolade by an independent gardening test laboratory.

The first one is "Celebration Time" and is good for small gardens.  You can see from the image on the right just how abundant the flowers are.  Bees also love them and it flowers from July to September. It was also black-spot free for almost the entire summer.  height 75cm x spread 80cm.  Available from Eastcroft Roses.

Next up is "Let's Celebrate" which is long flowering.  This is a personal favourite: it has a gentle perfume, is covered in blooms which start deep-pink and fade gentle to a light girly pink  It is also largely blackspot free.  It flowers from July to September and grows to 100cm height x 110 cm spread.  It is available from Fryer's Roses

"Many Happy Returns" is next on the list.  Its pink flowers go well with its grey/green foliage.  It is an ideal patio pot rose.  It is exceptionally long flowering: June to September, but only grow to 65cm height x 90cm spread.  This one does suffer from some small amount of blackspot late summer.  On the plus side it had a gentle perfume and attracted bees.  It is available from Peter Beales Roses.

Next up is "Mum in a Million".  This one has a lovely scent and flowers from June to August.  Again this one does have a little blackspot towards the end of the season.  It grows to 85cm height x 85cm spread.  A real bonus is that it has a delicious perfume.  It is also available from Peter Beales Roses

Finally "Champagne Moment".  This one has a shorter flowering period but looks fantastic while it last.  No blackspot but did have a spot of mildew.  100cm height x 80cm spread.  It is available from David Austin Roses.